Micronutrient market increases with zinc the leader

Globally, agriculture micronutrients have gained importance in the recent past due to their effectiveness on overall quality and productivity of crops grown on soil with appropriate micronutrient levels.

But the soil deficiency of micronutrients has increased worldwide due to intensive cropping patterns, expanded irrigation and extensive use of chemical fertilizers all leading to growing higher yield crops that remove more soil nutrients.

Mining of micronutrient reserves has increased to keep pace with the demand.

In 2011, Asia-Pacific was the largest market for micronutrients accounting for 53 percent of the overall agriculture micronutrient market by volume. North America and Asia-Pacific together accounted for 73 percent of the global market volumes in 2011.

The North American agriculture micronutrient market is expected to continue to increase substantially during the next five years.

According to the announcement of findings, “Cereals, fruits and vegetable crops are the major consumers of agriculture micronutrients. With increased population, demand for cereals has also increased substantially over the past two decades. To meet the global cereals demand, micronutrients are significantly applied to increase the crop productivity. Soil application, foliar and fertigation are the three application modes of agriculture micronutrients. Soil application has the largest share in the global agriculture micronutrients market. Micronutrients are applied in chelated or non-chelated form. Non-chelated micronutrients form has dominated the global market with 94 percent usage while chelated form has only a 6 percent share.”